Marinda M.[N] Hyde, 1815-1886

Autobiography (1818-1868)

Cited in Edward W. Tullidge, The Women of Mormondom

New York, 1877

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARINDA M.[N] HYDE

[The life of Mrs. Orson Hyde is replete with incidents of the
early days, including the shameful occurrence of the tarring and
feathering of the prophet, which took place while he was at her
father's house.]

[Her maiden name was Marinda M. Johnson, she being the daughter
of John and Elsa Johnson, a family well known among the pioneer
converts of Ohio. She was born in Pomfret, Windsor County,
Vermont, June 28, 1815.]

In February of 1818, my father, in company with several
families from the same place, emigrated to Hiram, Portage
County, Ohio. In the winter of 1831, Ezra Booth, a Methodist
minister, procured a copy of the Book of Mormon and brought it
to my father's house. They sat up all night reading it, and
were very much exercised over it. As soon as they heard that
Joseph Smith had arrived in Kirtland, Mr. Booth and wife and my
father and mother went immediately to see him. They were
convinced and baptized before they returned. They invited the
prophet and Elder Rigdon to accompany them home, which they did,
and preached several times to crowded congregations, baptizing
quite a number. I was baptized in April following [1831]. The
next fall Joseph came with his family to live at my father's
house. He was at that time translating the Bible, and Elder
Rigdon was acting as scribe. The following spring, a mob,
disguising themselves as black men, gathered and burst into his
sleeping apartment one night, and dragged him from the bed where
he was nursing a sick child. They also went to the house of
Elder Rigdon, and took him out with Joseph into an orchard,
where, after choking and beating them, they tarred and feathered
them, and left them nearly dead. My father, at the first onset,
started to the rescue, but was knocked down, and lay senseless
for some time. Here I feel like bearing my testimony that
during the whole year that Joseph was an inmate of my father's
house I never saw aught in his daily life or conversation to
make me doubt his divine mission.

In 1833 we moved to Kirtland, and in 1834 I was married to
Orson Hyde, and became fully initiated into the cares and duties
of a missionary's wife, my husband in common with most of the
elders giving his time and energies to the work of the ministry.

In the summer of 1837, leaving me with a three- week old
babe, he, in company with Heber C. Kimball and others, went on
their first mission to England. Shortly after his return, in
the summer of 1838, we, in company with several other families,
went to Missouri, where we remained till the next spring. We
then went to Nauvoo. In the spring of 1840 Mr. Hyde went on his
mission to Palestine; going in the apostolic style, without
purse or scrip, preaching his way, and when all other channels
were closed, teaching the English language in Europe, till he
gained sufficient money to take him to the Holy Land, where he
offered up his prayer on the Mount of Olives, and dedicated
Jerusalem to the gathering of the Jews in this dispensation.
Having accomplished a three-years mission, he returned, and
shortly after, in accordance with the revelation on celestial
marriage, and with my full consent, married two more wives. At
last we were forced to flee from Nauvoo, and in the spring of
1846, we made our way to Council Bluffs, where our husband left
us to go again on mission to England. On his return, in the
fall of 1847, he was appointed to take charge of the saints in
the States, and to send off the emigration as fast as it arrived
in a suitable condition on the frontiers; also to edit a paper
in the church interest, the name of which was Frontier Guardian.

In the summer of 1852 we brought our family safely through
to Salt Lake City, where we have had peace and safety ever
since.

In 1868 I was chosen to preside over the branch of the
Female Relief Society of the ward in which I reside, the duties
of which position I have prayerfully attempted to perform.